Does anybody remember mobile engine overhaul outfits?

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Bill Crowell

Bill Crowell

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One of my early memories was in about 1951, when the 1947 Buick straight 8 that belonged to the man next door wouldn't start due to low compression. So he called out a mobile engine overhaul guy who arrived in a big truck that had machine tools inside. I watched him work on the Buick all day, and was fascinated by the way he bored the cylinders, ground the valves, replaced the pistons and ground the crankshaft rod throws while the block remained in the engine bay. In fact, I think it was this experience that first got me interested in working on cars.

Does anybody remember these mobile engine overhaul companies and how they worked? If so, please relate your memories. Thanks.
 
"You must be a dinosaur, lol :D"

I may be an old coot, but I have a rather impressive wood pile!

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I always thought this was the only way to fix a busted ride back in the ol' days???



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I recall my father telling me that in the olden days there were mobile guys that would go from shop to shop. Don't recall him mentioning house calls though. He was born in '34.
 
I know that such mobile engine overhaul services existed at least as late as 1964, because that's when my girlfriend's father called them to overhaul her 1955 Pontiac 287 C.I. V8 when she ran it out of oil.
 
I remember when I was a kid on the farm we would go to the nearest little town which had a mechanic/blacksmith. If repairs required were more than the guy could do he would have you wait and bring it back when the mobile machine shop was scheduled to arrive. A couple times a year the stub nosed International truck would sit outside his shop for a week or so. I know the mobile machine shop did a rebuild on a 53 Buick for my great uncle and one time we bought a used half block for a Minneapolis Moline from the guy. Seems like he came in the winter so farmers could bring him tractors and trucks to rebuild. That truck must have been pretty full with machining equipment and used parts too.
 
I wonder how long did the old Buick 8 run well after the driveway rebuild? I also question how well the block and stuff was cleaned before assembly. we can do it quick but not cheap $ . we can do it cheap but not well.
 
In the early 90's There was a guy in LA that I saw doing one at the Honda shop that restorations by Julius used to own.
 
I've heard stories from my father about mobile "in frame" engine machining. Pretty interesting process of cleaning up a crank journal after a spun bearing without pulling the crank.
After pulling the oil pan and removing main cap or connecting rod and whats left of the spun bearing,
One back wheel gets jacked up and put on a set of motorized rollers, with the transmission in gear this turns the crank at a slow rpm.
A strip of sandpaper is then held against the crank sort of like you would shine a shoe until the crank is smooth.
Then the crank is measured and a slightly undersized bearing is used to bring the oil clearance back to a within a reasonable amount.

Now this kind of stuff didn't come with a 100k mile guarantee, it was more to get every little bit of life out of an engine. Another thing was back then (pre 1960's) it wasn't uncommon to have to open an engine up and put a set of rings in it or do a valve job after 60k miles.

Mechanics back then didn't have the "remove and replace" mentality back then it was more like "remove and rebuild", customers weren't as fussy back then either.
 
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Oh yes.
Circa 1977 in a trade school tech auto class.
Guy comes with a portable engine boring machine.
Sleeves a 396 in the car.
Or I think it was on the bench.
Anyway.
When he finished first boring the cylinder he says
"This is the high tech part"
And takes a piece of wood and a hammer and pounds the sleeve into the block.
Then proceeds to bore it to size.
Had a shop vac I think to suck the chips.
 
These procedures were called "overhauls". My parents used a shop in Macon called The Carlisle Garage. Two brothers, Harold and Junior Carlisle owned and operated it. They were in business from the late 40s until the mid 80s. Harold is still alive today. These guys did everything right in their shop. Boring blocks, valve jobs, complete cylinder head work, you name it. The boring bar they used was the same type those portable jobbies had. Theirs was a Quick Way. It bored one cylinder at a time. Then you moved the bar to the next cylinder and bored it and so on. They were way old school, but two of the best mechanics for their time in this area. An era gone by for sure.

We have a couple of mobile auto repair businesses around here, but they are fly by night bullcrappers who don't know anything. I wouldn't let them work on my lawn mower.
 
RustyRatRod said:
These procedures were called "overhauls". My parents used a shop in Macon called The Carlisle Garage. Two brothers, Harold and Junior Carlisle owned and operated it. They were in business from the late 40s until the mid 80s. Harold is still alive today. These guys did everything right in their shop. Boring blocks, valve jobs, complete cylinder head work, you name it. The boring bar they used was the same type those portable jobbies had. Theirs was a Quick Way. It bored one cylinder at a time. Then you moved the bar to the next cylinder and bored it and so on. They were way old school, but two of the best mechanics for their time in this area. An era gone by for sure.

We have a couple of mobile auto repair businesses around here, but they are fly by night bullcrappers who don't know anything. I wouldn't let them work on my lawn mower.
Click to expand...

I owned a mobile service in CA for years and had a good enough rep in the area that I got sued by one of the biggest local shops for taking his business away from him.:D
He didn't win or anything because I didn't do anything wrong, but he was sure pissed about it.
He told the judge he had way more overhead than I did having a building and a bunch of employees, but the judge told him he picked his way of doing his business and I picked mine so all that expense was his own problem.

Never did any crank grinding on my truck though.:D
 
A local parts store had one here until the the big box stores bought him out in the mid 80's, he would come out and bore one cylinder if that is all you needed.
And it would work to get an old tired engine going again.
These guys came from a time, that an engine life span was only around 50,000 miles if you were lucky, but the big three figured out how to make more reliable engines.
 
The gas station I worked at starting in '64 had a Kwik Way boring bar... we did that work ourselves but we had a crank guy come in and do that for us.

We also rebuilt starters and generators, relined brake shoes and clutches and rebuilt carbs and fuel pumps... it was a great education.
 
I don't think we had any around here, and I'm 69. I DO remember one old independent mech in town in a little bitty garage, had a carbide acetylene generator for his cutting torch. Now, THAT thing was impressive!!!

carbide-welders.jpg


For those unaware, these are how miner's lamps and early automotive lighting worked. An upper water tank drips water onto carbide, which makes acetylene gas

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Now that's some cool stuff, Del!
 
Back in the early 70s I did the shopwork in the back of a small auto parts store. We didn't have a crank grinder but did have a Kwikway boring bar. I can't see how you could bore cylinders on a partially assembled block still in the car and not end up with a lot of metal shavings everywhere they shouldn't be.
 
the old boring bar is good, when we do not rush, and we stop a few thousands short of the final size to finish with some good honing
 
Yes, they are good. A good machine design can be timeless. I once saw a very old Kwikway machine in a museum, which didn't look much different than the one I used in the early 70s, that I think dated to the early 50s, to the ones in the pictures in this post. I can see the lineage from old to newer.

Another timeless machine is a Bridgeport mill. They date back to the 30s, you can look at pictures of old ones and see where the ones being made now came from.
 
67Dart273 said:
I don't think we had any around here, and I'm 69. I DO remember one old independent mech in town in a little bitty garage, had a carbide acetylene generator for his cutting torch. Now, THAT thing was impressive!!!

View attachment 1715121278

For those unaware, these are how miner's lamps and early automotive lighting worked. An upper water tank drips water onto carbide, which makes acetylene gas

View attachment 1715121279
Click to expand...
Knew a guy who had an acetylene generator in his body shop. One night, after several beers, we launched several large balloons filled with the gas with a lighted fuse attached... the balloons would ignite at about 500'.

The problem was his shop was in the flight path for the local airport... oops! After a stern warning form the local cops, FBI and FAA he sold the generator.
 
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